I bought an antique telegraph sounder a while back, and I’ve been working on a project that will click out emails from my Etsy store when I get an order. I’ve gone through several generations, and come up with something I really like. What follows is a description of my process for going from concept to finished piece. The code & PCB are open-source, and can be found on my github.Continue reading »

I opened my Etsy store in January (about 9 months ago), and have learned a lot about effectively marketing my store. For the first several months I was trying everything I could think of to increase my visitor count, and I did get a ton of people coming into my store, but the effort required on my part was substantial, and 3 months in I lost interest. That’s when things got interesting.Continue reading »

My Etsy store has been doing well, but I’d like to overcome the friction of requiring an Etsy account. To reach a wider audience, I’d like to additionally offer my products on a site that wasn’t specific to a community. To that end, I created a tool which generates a static HTML + Javascript eCommerce site. Here’s the result: Creative Retrospection.Continue reading »

It’s hard to say what sort of sales rate is reasonable or average for a new Etsy store. I spend a fair amount of time in the team forums, and the general consensus I’m getting is that it’s really hard to make any/many sales for smaller shops, but that larger shops (100+ items) tend to make several sales per week. Given that understanding, I have set a goal for myself that I think is aggressive but achievable.Continue reading »

I opened my Etsy store two weeks ago today, and I’ve learned a ton in the time. I have a long way to go before having any significant success, but it’s a fun experiment and side-project for me. Here’s where things stand so far.Continue reading »

I’ve been experimenting with laser cutting lately, and starting to get some results I like. It turned out to be more accessible than I expected, and what started as a single-purpose project is growing into an interesting creative outlet (You can follow my experiments on my Etsy store). Here’s what I’ve learned so far.Continue reading »